''Complete Arcane'' is a supplemental rulebook for the
3.5 edition of the ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...
''
role-playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
. It expands upon and replaces an earlier soft-cover rulebook entitled ''Tome and Blood''.
Contents
''Complete Arcane'' presents additional rules and advice for the creation and use of
character classes which specialize in
arcane magic, which represents magic that is learned through research or inherent power as opposed to divine sources.
New classes
The Complete Arcane introduces three new
base classes to the 3rd edition game.
Warlock
A
Warlock
A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft.
Etymology and terminology
The most commonly accepted etymology derives '' warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver" and was given special applicati ...
has been given supernatural powers; either he or his ancestors made a deal with a supernatural being. A warlock has an innate magical ability called the ''eldritch blast'', a damaging ray-like ability. The damage for this attack increases as the warlock gains levels. Instead of spells, warlocks gain a limited number of ''invocations'', spell-like abilities with a distinctively sinister flavor. Most of these invocations may be performed at will, or have durations of 24 hours. Some invocations add effects to the warlock's eldritch blast, causing sicknesss, or blindness, or fright, etc.
Warmage
Warmages take the concept of "magical artillery" to its extreme. They specialize in direct-damage spells and can wear light armor (and later medium armor) without penalty to their spellcasting. Though they cast spells like a sorcerer, they have a very limited list of spells they can cast.
Wu Jen
Wu jen are arcane spellcasters with a distinct
Oriental flavor. Wu Jen specialize in the casting of elemental spells. The five elements of Wu Jen magic are wood, fire, water, earth, and metal.
Prestige classes
Prestige classes are mainly updates from Tome & Blood.
* The Acolyte of the skin: forges a pact with demons or devils through bonding of a skin of a fiend to his own. The acolyte will eventually become an ''Outsider''.
* The Alienist is a mage who studies & summons creatures beyond normal understanding, eventually becoming an ''Outsider''.
* The Argent Savant is a mage who specializes in force spells.
* The Blood Magus, after being brought back from death, learns to evoke magic from the fluid that sustains their life.
* The Effigy Master masters the creation of magically animated constructs built in the form of other living creatures.
* The Elemental Savant focuses their studies on one of the four elements and its associated energy type.
* The Enlightened Fist combines magic with martial arts and development of the body.
* The Fate Spinner learns how to increase the probability of events in their favor.
* The Geometer is a master of runes, glyphes, sigils, and symbols.
* The Greenstar Adept is the master of the magic derived from green starmetal.
* The Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil can call up barriers of prismatic power, gaining the ability to produce a different layer of ''prismatic wall'' each level.
* The Mage of the Arcane Order is a member of an academy and guild known as Arcane Order.
* The Master Transmogrifist specializes in spells that changes their form.
* The Mindbender focuses on charms and compulsions.
* The Seeker of the Song wields the power of primal music.
* The Sublime Chord uses bardic music as a stepping stone to deeper insights into the song of creation.
* The Suel Arcanamach carries on the old tradition of the long dead Suel Empire and merge spell casting and sword play.
* The Wayfarer Guide specializes in magical transportation.
* The Wild mage is a master of chaotic magic.
Feats
''Complete Arcane'' also introduces a number of metamagic feats and several others based on magic, including the Mage Slayer
feat
Feat or FEAT may refer to:
* ''FEAT'' (album), a 2012 The Hood Internet album
* Feat (d20 System), concept in role-playing game system d20
* '' Feat (stato di natura)'', a 2020 album by Francesca Michielin
* An abbreviation for ''featuring'', us ...
tree, which makes a character more dangerous to arcane casters.
Magic Items
Magic items
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
include variant forms for potions and scrolls such as ceramic tiles that are broken to cause a spell effect instead of liquids that must be consumed, as well as spellbook materials for the discerning (or paranoid) wizard.
Campaigns
The last chapter of the book details how
arcane magic can affect a campaign world, including the uses and abuses of Enchantment spells, flight, teleportation, and invisibility, and how nonmagical people would react to bards, sorcerers, wizards, and warlocks.
Publication history
''Complete Arcane'' was written by
Richard Baker and published in November 2004. Cover art was by
Matt Cavotta
Matt Cavotta is an American artist and writer. His artwork is focused on the fantasy genre, with notable contributions to popular games such as ''Magic: The Gathering'' and ''Dungeons & Dragons''.
Career
Cavotta wrote a weekly column for Magic ...
, with interior art by
Steve Belledin
''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen
Notable people with the name include:
steve jops
* Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people
* Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people
* Steve ...
, Matt Cavotta,
Dennis Crabapple McClain
Justine Mara Andersen (born Dennis Cramer) is an American artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games and comic books.
Works
Justine Mara Andersen, has produced interior illustrations for many ''Dungeons & Dragons'' books and '' Dragon'' ...
,
Emily Fiegenschuh,
Doug Kovacs
Doug is a male personal name (or, depending on which definition of "personal name" one uses, part of a personal name). It is sometimes a given name (or "first name"), but more often it is hypocorism (affectionate variation of a personal name) which ...
,
Ginger Kubic
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...
,
,
Monte Moore
Monte Moore (born 1930) is an American former radio and television broadcaster for the Kansas City Athletics and Oakland Athletics baseball teams.
Voice of the Athletics
An Oklahoma native, with a folksy, down-home style, Moore became the lea ...
,
William O'Connor,
Michael Phillippi
Michael Phillippi (born ) is an American artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games.
Education
Michael Phillippi started his illustration career in 1997 after graduating from the Savannah College of Art & Design.
Career
His ''Dungeon ...
,
Ron Spencer
Ron Spencer is an American illustrator whose most famous work has been for the collectible card game '' Magic: The Gathering''.Felt, Kevin (December 17, 2007). "Painter of 'Magic' cards inspiring random acts of kindness", ''San Gabriel Valley Tri ...
, and
Franz Vohwinkel
Franz Vohwinkel (born 1964 in Munich, West Germany) is a German artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in role-playing games.
Works
Vohwinkel drew the cover art for the book ''Dataware'' (1998) for TSR's ''Alternity'' game, and illustra ...
.
Rich Baker described his creative process on the book: "I don't know if I have any one global process for thinking up new stuff. I can offer a little insight into how I derived some of our new material, though. If you look at the various schools of magic, you'll see that Abjuration really gets short shrift in most of our sourcebooks. So, I was determined to look hard at Abjuration spells and see if I couldn't re-envision the abjurer a little bit to make it cooler. It occurred to me that abjuration was the school of magic manipulating magic (for example, dispel magic) . . . which means that abjurers really ought to be the nastiest spell-duelists out there. If you want to build a wizard who specializes in gunslinging against other wizards, Abjuration should be your specialty. That's a pretty cool take on a school of magic that was formerly a little boring and overlooked, so I ran with it. I created a half-dozen key new Abjuration spells to support that vision, spells that screw with the other wizard's defenses and use your enemy's magic against him."
Reception
Viktor Coble listed the entire ''Complete'' series - including ''
Complete Adventurer
''Complete Adventurer'' is a supplemental hard-cover rulebook for the 3.5 edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game system published by Wizards of the Coast.
Contents
It focuses on the skill based character classes of D&D, replacing and expandi ...
'', ''
Complete Divine
''Complete Divine'' is a supplemental rulebook for the 3.5 edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game published by Wizards of the Coast. It replaces and expands upon earlier rulebooks entitled '' Masters of the Wild'' and ...
'', ''
Complete Warrior'', ''Complete Arcane'', ''
Complete Champion
''Complete Champion'' is a supplement for the 3.5 edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game.
Contents
Somewhat of a sequel to ''Complete Divine'', the book is geared for characters who fight for a cause.
Publication histor ...
'', and ''
Complete Mage'' - as #9 on ''
CBR''
's 2021 "D&D: 10 Best Supplemental Handbooks" list, stating that "These books took a deep dive into specific class types. They expanded on what it meant to be that kind of class, gave informative prestige classes, extra abilities, and even new concepts for playing them."
References
External links
*http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10910.phtml
{{D&D topics
Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks
Role-playing game supplements introduced in 2004